Cross Country Teams Run Fast At Riverside

The men's and women's cross country teams combined for 21 personal best times at the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday as each team scored 267 points. The women finished eighth and the men finished ninth.  Seven of the eight SCIAC teams competed in the event and the women handily defeated all the other six.  The Stags, despite not having their top two runners, beat four of the six.

The Athenas began the early day with a 7:30 start and had their best team performance in recent years.  The first nine finishers and 12 of the 18 runners ran personal best times for the five kilometer distance.  CMS finished behind two Division I teams, three top-10 NAIA teams, a top-10 Division II team and a post-collegiate club team.  The team was again led by Evelyn Ross (SR, Iowa City, IA) who finished 22nd overall with a time of 17:55.  This time is the seventh best in CMS history.  Julia Rigby (FR, North Tustin) followed in 18:10 which is the 10th best in CMS history and third best by a freshman.  Katie Harris (SR, Bremerton, WA [pictured left]) had a breakthrough performance running 18:53 after never having broken 20:00 before.  Other personal bests were run by Ashley Scott (SO, Battle Creek, MI, 19:07), Lacey McLean (FR, Gig Harbor, WA, 19:25), Kelly Garton (FR, Los Gatos, 19:40), Ally Rueschenberg (JR, Avila Beach, 19:43), Emery Hilles (FR, Eugene, OR, 19:44), Rachael Martin (SR, Pasadena, 19:46), Hannah Lakehomer (JR, Eugene, OR, 19:52), Sara Sholes (FR, Boulder Creek, 20:09) and Alexa Teevens (FR, Pembroke, MA, 20:58).

The Stags did not fare quite as well as the Athenas, but still had nine of their 18 runners set personal bests.  Kris Brown (SO, Seattle, WA) led the Stags with a personal best time of 26:09 becoming the third different leader in as many races.  Other personal best were set by Bryan Chow (FR, Livermore, 26:16 [pictured right]), Alex Kurtis (JR, Bellingham, WA, 26:57), Dillon Ayers (SO, Eureka, 27:15), Kyle Stewart (SO, Redwood City, 27:18), Eric Johnson (FR, Walnut Creek, 27:32), Dan Evans (FR, Missoula, MT, 29:35), Scott Ogilvie (FR, Sleepy Hollow, IL, 30:03) and Nelson Gil (SO, Los Angeles, 32:02).  The top two runners from their last meet, Florian Scheulen (JR, Encinitas) and Mike Van Antwerp (SR, Reno, NV) did not run this week due to a research project and a lingering injury respectively.

Twelve men and twelve women will travel to Salem, OR this weekend to compete at the Willamette Invitational.  The courses will be the same (2/3 the same for the women) as the ones used for the NCAA West Region meet in November.  The region meet is the qualifying meet for the NCAA Championships.  The men will race at 9:30 and the women will race at 10:15.  Both teams are ranked third in the West Region and will each face six of the other top 10 teams in the region.